At Keysborough College, we adhere to the Department's Assessment of Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy, ensuring that our students benefit from a diverse range of assessment opportunities. Our teachers employ assessment tasks that span various curriculum levels, promoting differentiation and capturing evidence of individual learning growth. Assessment is seamlessly integrated into our course design, encompassing both formative and summative practices to gauge current student performance and guide future learning strategies. We prioritise inclusivity, designing assessments that cater to the diverse backgrounds, abilities, and individual needs of all our students, ensuring equitable access to opportunities for success.

Assessment task design

Assessment tasks are developed to align with the curriculum and learning outcomes. They should be clear, specific and appropriate for the year level and subject. Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) are used throughout Years 7-10, they should be designed to provide the student, teacher and parent with reliable information on the student's achievement across the full range of intended subject outcomes.

Learning Areas will determine the areas of assessment, examined in each of the CATs assessed during the semester, for their subject. Appropriate common assessment tasks for each area unit of study are then determined. The level of performance for each area of assessments is reported using a descriptive scale and assessment rubric in line with the Victorian Curriculum.

Formative assessment

Allows teachers to understand the learning needs of their students and guides the teaching program. Formative assessment can occur before a learning sequence (pre-assessment), during the learning - both formally and informally - and after the learning, when a teacher checks back in to monitor a student’s growth. Examples may include classwork, classroom observations, class discussions, student reflections and answering questions. Teachers are expected to provide students with comments on their learning growth and feedback for improvement prior to completing a summative assessment, CAT, SAC or SAT.

Summative assessment

Should be used as a method to track progress and inform the teaching program. Teachers have a responsibility to prepare students for ‘high stakes’ assessment and it is important for students to understand what they have achieved. Examples may include test results, diagnostic assessments such as PAT-R & PAT-M, NAPLAN, Examination results and Common Assessment Tasks.

Summative assessment differs between the Victorian Curriculum F-10, VCAA VCE assessment and the VCAA VET programs scored assessment. For more details regarding assessment for all VCE and VET studies, refer to the VCAA assessment principles and VCE VET Programs scored assessment.

Victorian Curriculum F-10 summative assessments should be based on well-designed, authentic tasks that:

• Cover a range of learning styles across a course

• Are correlated to the Victorian Curriculum F-10 learning standards

• Are open-ended and encourage critical thinking skills

• Involve student choice

• Allow teachers to work efficiently to provide feedback

• Minimise student opportunities to plagiarise or use artificial intelligence to generate work

Common Assessment Tasks (CATs)

Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) are used across the College from years 7-10. They will vary in nature according to the learning area and subject requirements, however, the College has consistent features for school based assessment, which are:

• The completion of CATs form a significant part of the overall assessment cycle.

• all CATs will address the relevant curriculum standards of the Victorian Curriculum outcomes that have been taught in the unit. 

• Criteria will be provided that clearly indicates the knowledge and skills students will be assessed against.

• All CATs should be consistent across each subject at each year level and be held under the same conditions, within a two-week window, to ensure that all classes effectively follow the Scope & Sequence documentation.

• Prior to the commencement of the CAT, teachers should distribute a task outline, assessment criteria and set a date of completion that provides sufficient preparation time for all students.

• All CATs will require elements to be completed during class for authentication purposes, however, some CATs may require research or additional work to be completed outside of class time.

• Within a two-week window, teachers are required to report on students’ achievement and make feedback and marks available through a visible Compass Learning Task.

• CAT assessment results will also be reported in the semester report.

Common Assessment Task criteria:

• clear learning intention

• task details 

• assessment criteria / rubric / marking schema

• date of completion

Task weighting

The weightage of each school based assessment task (SAC or SAT) will be communicated to students at the beginning of each unit to provide transparency and help students with time management.

Timing of School Assessed Coursework (SAC)

The length of a SAC is determined at the discretion of the classroom teacher in adherence with VCAA so that they are equitable, and as such, should not unfairly impact a student’s ability to complete the task.  Eg. intercampus travel, after school commitments, work commitments or family commitments.

In determining the time given to SACs, teachers should take careful note of the recommendations and requirements made by VCAA, to ensure students can demonstrate achievement of the outcomes. Additionally, as SACs assist students to improve subject knowledge and give an indication of what is to be expected in exams at the end of the year, teachers should aim to, where possible, choose a time frame that adequately prepares students for the end of year examination.

Teachers should note that all SAC dates must be logged on the Senior School calendar so that all stakeholders can plan accordingly. Where there are multiple classes for the same subject, teachers are accountable to ensure there is alignment of content being taught and assessment practices, including the timing being delivered across the College.  SACs shall not be scheduled during Headstart or before the commencement of the official academic year. Teachers should plan the timing of the delivery to minimise the time lag between different classes when delivering the same SAC. If this is not possible, then teachers will need to carefully plan alternate SAC questions.  

The College recommendation for SAC timing is a maximum of 60 minutes during any one lesson, this takes into account the shortened periods on Tuesdays and the potential intercampus travel disruptions, as students must be able to return to their other campus classes.  If a task requires more time to be completed, staff should consider providing a SAC that can be broken into smaller components and completed over two lessons. In this case, students should be given the SAC in parts to ensure the work can be authenticated.  In the event that a SAC is required to run outside of school hours in order to be completed in one sitting, a planning form needs to be submitted for approval by the Principal Class at least three weeks before the chosen date. Eg. Friday P4 + additional time.

Each VCE unit result must be determined on the basis of evidence of achievement of outcomes completed during the academic year in which the student is enrolled, as a result no formal school-based assessment can be undertaken during the Headstart teaching period.

Redemption process for SACs

At the completion of an outcome the teacher may assess a student's skill and knowledge as “Not Satisfactory” meaning the student has not yet demonstrated the required skills and knowledge for this outcome, as outlined in the relevant VCAA study design. To make this judgement the teacher will have considered all forms of assessment, class work and the knowledge and skills demonstrated in class.  If a student is deemed to have not met the required standard the teacher will allow further work to be submitted to meet the required standard for satisfactory completion of the outcome. It should be noted that SAC or SAT scores awarded by the school cannot be altered. Students required to complete a redemption task for an outcome will be notified by their teacher that they have not met the outcome and are 'At Risk' requiring the student to complete additional tasks to demonstrate the required skill and knowledge. An At Risk notice will also be posted to Compass by the teacher as a formal notification to the students parent or guardian.

Integrity of school based assessment

Students are expected to uphold academic integrity and avoid plagiarism or any other form of inauthentic work submissions. Teachers are responsible for marking and assessing their own students’ school assessed coursework (with exception to staff on extended leave), external marking (with exception to practice examinations) or marking completed using artificial intelligence. Assessment tasks must not be reused in their entirety, they must be significantly modified or rewritten each year to reduce the risk of plagiarism. Teachers must provide students an opportunity to complete a significant amount of the assessment task during class time, so that work can be authenticated. Where possible a bibliography, draft or planning documents should also form part of the student’s work submission.

Consequences for plagiarism in VCE are governed by the expectations set out by VCAA. Detailed advice is provided in the VCE Policy Handbook. The classroom teacher is encouraged to consult with the relevant TTL and Senior School Assistant Principal and document the breach as soon as possible as breaches of this severity can jeopardise the students’ successful completion of VCE.